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1. Earlier declines in marine resources, combined with current fishing pressures and devastating coral mortality in 2015, have resulted in a degraded coral reef ecosystem state at Puakō in West Hawai'i. Changes to resource management are needed to facilitate recovery of ecosystem functions and services. 2. We developed a customised ecosystem model to evaluate the performance of alternative management scenarios at Puakō in the provisioning of ecosystem services to human users (marine tourists, recreational fishers) and enhancing the reef's ability to recover from pressures (resilience). 3. Outcomes of the continuation of current management plus five alternative management scenarios were compared under both high and low coral-bleaching related mortality over a 15-year time span. 4. Current management is not adequate to prevent further declines in marine resources. Fishing effort is already above the multispecies sustainable yield, and, at its current level, will likely lead to a shift to algal-dominated reefs and greater abundance of undesirable fish species. Scenarios banning all gears other than line fishing, or prohibiting take of herbivorous fishes, were most effective at enhancing reef structure and resilience, dive tourism, and the recreational fishery. Allowing only line fishing generated the most balanced trade-off between stakeholders, with positive gains in both ecosystem resilience and dive tourism, while only moderately decreasing fishery value within the area. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our customised ecosystem model projects the impacts of multiple, simultaneous pressures on a reef ecosystem. Trade-offs of alternative approaches identified by local managers were quantified based on indicators for different ecosystem services (e.g. ecosystem resilience, recreation, food). This approach informs managers of potential conflicts among stakeholders and provides guidance on approaches that better balance conservation objectives and stakeholders' interests. Our results indicate that a combination of reducing land-based pollution and allowing only line fishing generated the most balanced trade-off between stakeholders and will enhance reef recovery from the detrimental effects of coral bleaching events that are expected over the next 15 years.

Expanding the footprint of natural fire has been proposed as one potential solution to increase the pace of forest restoration programs in fire‐adapted landscapes of the western USA. However, studies that examine the long‐term socio‐ecological trade‐offs of expanding natural fire to reduce wildfire risk and create fire resilient landscapes are lacking. We used the model Envision to examine the outcomes that might result from increased area burned by what we call “restoration” wildfire in a landscape where the ecological benefits of wildfire are known, but the need to suppress high‐risk fires that threaten human values is also evident. Our study area, in the eastern Cascades of Oregon, USA, includes the Deschutes National Forest where large tracts of mixed conifer forest structure are outside the historical range of variation and characterized by multi‐layer, closed‐canopy stands. We found that simulation of one restoration wildfire per year in addition to high‐risk wildfires in the regular fire season and over the course of 50 yr resulted in a 23% increase in total area burned, but the same probability of fire‐on‐fire interactions. This translated into 0.3% of the national forest burned by restoration wildfire per year and had a small impact in area burned by high‐risk fires albeit more likely in extreme fire years. Smoke production doubled in the restoration scenario relative to the scenario without restoration wildfire, but still resulted in minimal smoke production in most years. Restoration fires burned with low‐ to mixed‐severity and led to a steady reduction in canopy cover and increase in resilient forest structure in dry‐forest types. Habitat for the federally protected northern spotted owl declined with the inclusion of restoration fire, while habitat for species that use recently burned forest stands (e.g., black‐backed woodpecker) increased. Our results suggest that restoration wildfire can improve forest resilience and contribute to restoration efforts in fire‐adapted forests, but there are trade‐offs (wildlife habitat, smoke, area burned in fire‐sensitive forest types), and the level of restoration fire use we simulated is unlikely to have a significant impact on the occurrence of high‐severity wildfires.

Restoring forests can help conserve biodiversity, mitigate climate change and enhance human well‐being. Despite financial and political support for global forest restoration initiatives, projects continue to face persistent challenges and trade‐offs between environmental, climatic and socio‐economic goals. To better understand existing and future challenges and opportunities, we convened a diverse panel of 25 international experts from academia, science and policy organisations, funding agencies and the private sector. Through a structured expert elicitation process, we collectively identify seven key socio‐ecological issues likely to substantially shape forest restoration in low and middle‐income countries over the next decade. The identified issues are linked to: (i) adverse environmental impacts of poorly designed forest restoration initiatives; (ii) continued inattention to human well‐being and diverse values; (iii) the funding gap for long‐term restoration and challenges of private investment; (iv) new power dynamics and elites; (v) the looming technological revolution from Artificial Intelligence and related technologies; (vi) increasing need for adaptation to climate change to be built into restoration practice; and (vii) increasing competition and contestation for land. Our findings reinforce rising concerns that current restoration paradigms, which often favour large‐scale carbon‐centric interventions, risk undermining environmental and social outcomes. Whether emerging AI technologies and diversified private‐sector funding mechanisms can support community‐led, bottom‐up restoration depends on establishing robust regulatory frameworks, equitable access to technology and capacity building. Raising awareness of these unresolved and emerging issues can help to inform forest restoration practice that is ecologically effective, more equitable and resilient to future change. Success depends on policymakers and practitioners seizing emerging opportunities while critically evaluating current practices to ensure they promote, rather than undermine, these goals. Building decentralised governance structures and diversified funding sources can help sustain and safeguard restoration efforts, particularly against policy volatility from political regime changes. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Spanish translation: Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Resumen La restauración de bosques puede ayudar a conservar la biodiversidad, mitigar el cambio climático y mejorar el bienestar humano. A pesar del apoyo financiero y político a las iniciativas globales de restauración de bosques, los proyectos continúan enfrentando desafíos persistentes y disyuntivas entre objetivos ambientales, climáticos y socioeconómicos. Para comprender mejor los desafíos y oportunidades existentes y futuros, convocamos un panel diverso de 25 expertos internacionales provenientes de la academia, organizaciones científicas y de políticas públicas, agencias de financiamiento y el sector privado. A través de un proceso estructurado de consulta a expertos, identificamos colectivamente siete temas socio ecológicos clave que probablemente influirán sustancialmente en la restauración de bosques en países de ingresos bajos y medios durante la próxima década. Los temas identificados están vinculados a: (i) impactos ambientales adversos de iniciativas de restauración de bosques mal diseñadas; (ii) continua desatención al bienestar humano y a valores diversos; (iii) la brecha de financiamiento para la restauración a largo plazo y los desafíos de la inversión privada; (iv) nuevas dinámicas de poder y élites; (v) la inminente revolución tecnológica de la Inteligencia Artificial y tecnologías relacionadas; (vi) creciente necesidad de integrar la adaptación al cambio climático en la práctica de restauración; y (vii) creciente competencia y disputa por la tierra. Nuestros hallazgos refuerzan las crecientes preocupaciones de que los paradigmas actuales de restauración, que a menudo favorecen intervenciones a gran escala centradas en el carbono, corren el riesgo de socavar los resultados ambientales y sociales. Que las tecnologías emergentes de IA y los mecanismos diversificados de financiamiento del sector privado puedan apoyar la restauración liderada por comunidades y de base local, depende del establecimiento de marcos regulatorios robustos, acceso equitativo a la tecnología y desarrollo de capacidades. Crear conciencia sobre estos temas no resueltos y emergentes puede ayudar a orientar prácticas de restauración de bosques que sean ecológicamente efectivas, más equitativas y resilientes al cambio futuro. El éxito depende de que los responsables de políticas públicas y los profesionales aprovechen las oportunidades emergentes mientras evalúan críticamente las prácticas actuales para garantizar que promuevan, en lugar de socavar, estos objetivos. Construir estructuras de gobernanza descentralizadas y fuentes de financiamiento diversificadas puede ayudar a sostener y salvaguardar los esfuerzos de restauración, particularmente contra la volatilidad de políticas derivada de cambios de régimen político. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Spanish translation: Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Tropical agricultural landscapes often consist of a mosaic of different land uses, yet little is known about the spectrum of ecosystem service bundles and materials they provide to rural households. We interviewed 320 households on the different benefits received from prevalent land-use types in north-eastern Madagascar (old-growth forests, forest fragments, vanilla agroforests, woody fallows, herbaceous fallows, and rice paddies) in terms of ecosystem services and plant uses. Old-growth forests and forest fragments were reported as important for regulating services (e.g. water regulation), whilst fallow lands and vanilla agroforests as important for provisioning services (food, medicine, fodder). Households reported the usage of 285 plant species (56% non-endemics) and collected plants from woody fallows for varying purposes, whilst plants from forest fragments, predominantly endemics, were used for construction and weaving. Multiple land-use types are thus complementary for providing ecosystem services, with fallow lands being particularly important. Hence, balancing societal needs and conservation goals should be based on diversified and comprehensive land management.

An understanding of the relationships among multiple ecosystem services (ES) facilitates ecosystem management and decision-making. The study of ES bundles can well explain the complex interactions between different ES in a region. Shenyang is a significant economic development and food production area in Northeast China, with a diverse range of ES types. In this study, we quantified eleven ES from Shenyang, China (two provisioning services, eight regulating services, and one cultural service). The trade-offs and synergies among ES were analyzed by Spearman’s correlation analysis. The ES bundles were identified using principal component analysis and k-means cluster analysis. Finally, the random forest method was employed to identify the driving factors affecting the ES bundles. The results showed: (1) all ES in Shenyang improved between 2000 and 2019; (2) the most obvious trade-off was found between sand fixation and water conservation; (3) the ES in the study region could be clustered into five different ES bundles which were primarily affected by land-use type; and (4) social-ecological factors largely explained and predicted the formation and distribution of ES bundles. The study provides reference information for the management and optimization of Shenyang’s ecosystems and land use regulation.

Ecosystems can sustain social adaptation to environmental change by protecting people from climate change effects and providing options for sustaining material and non-material benefits as ecological structure and functions transform. Along adaptation pathways, people navigate the trade-offs between different ecosystem contributions to adaptation, or adaptation services (AS), and can enhance their synergies and co-benefits as environmental change unfolds. Understanding trade-offs and co-benefits of AS is therefore essential to support social adaptation and requires analysing how people co-produce AS. We analysed co-production along the three steps of the ecosystem cascade: (i) ecosystem management; (ii) mobilization; and (iii) appropriation, social access and appreciation. Using five exemplary case studies across socio-ecosystems and continents, we show how five broad mechanisms already active for current ecosystem services can enhance co-benefits and minimize trade-offs between AS: (1) traditional and multi-functional land/sea management targeting ecological resilience; (2) pro-active management for ecosystem transformation; (3) co-production of novel services in landscapes without compromising other services; (4) collective governance of all co-production steps; and (5) feedbacks from appropriation, appreciation of and social access to main AS. We conclude that knowledge and recognition of co-production mechanisms will enable pro-active management and governance for collective adaptation to ecosystem transformation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions’.

Multifunctional landscapes are used and shaped by a range of different stakeholders. The high number of diverging values, interests or demands in such landscapes can lead to conflicts that impact sustainability goals. In this study, our aim was to include stakeholders' valuations of ecosystem services in multifunctionality assessments and thereby to identify different and possibly contradictory perspectives on landscape multifunctionality. Two European cultural landscapes, the Vereinigte Mulde (Germany) and the Kromme Rijn (The Netherlands), were used as case studies. Spatially explicit indicators of eleven ecosystem services were assessed and weighted according to their survey-based perceived importance for different stakeholder groups. While some significant differences between the groups were apparent, the results also revealed that all stakeholder groups acknowledge the importance of multiple ecosystem services. Stakeholder-specific multifunctionality hotspots occurred mainly in forests or grasslands and largely overlapped between the groups. Our study therefore clearly shows that the diversity of ecosystem services must be preserved in order to preserve the values that cultural landscapes offer to a wide range of people. While local solutions must be sought to resolve local land use conflicts over the use of ecosystem services, we conclude that multifunctionality can be declared a common goal.

We propose novel strategies for primate experimentation that are ethically valuable and pragmatically useful for integrative neuroscience research. Specifically, we propose Natural laboratory Complex or Natural-Labs, which are a combination of indoor-outdoor structures for studying free moving and socially housed primates in natural or naturalistic environment. We contend that Natural-Labs are pivotal to improve primate welfare, and at the same time to increase validity of longitudinal and socio-ecological studies of primate brain and behavior. Currently emerging advanced technologies and social systems (incl. recent COVID-19 induced “remote” infrastructures) can speed-up integrative neuroscience approaches in freely behaving animals. Integrative approaches in natural(istic) experimental settings are not in competition with conventional approaches of laboratory investigations, and could establish several benefits at the ethical, experimental, and economic levels.

The trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services can provide clues for understanding the mechanisms of regional ecological evolution. Previous studies have mainly concentrated on administrative divisions to characterize ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies within specific regions. However, ambiguity persists regarding the spatial diversity and scale dependency of regional ecosystem services, along with the degree to which human activity and climatic variation influence the relationships of multiscale ecosystem services. This study focuses on the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in China. Based on grid, county-level, and city-level scales, it analyzes five ecosystem services, namely habitat quality, carbon storage, food production, soil conservation, and water yield, from 2000 to 2020. By using correlation analysis and spatial autocorrelation methods, this study explores the intensity of the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services and their spatial patterns. Then, combined with the Optimal Parameters-based Geographical Detector, it identifies the dominant driving factors, quantifies their degree of contribution, and reveals the multiscale differentiation of ecosystem service relationships and their causes. The results show that the five ecosystem services all exhibit significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity. At the grid scale, there is a trade-off relationship between food production and the other four services, while a strong synergistic effect exists among the remaining four services. At the county scale, the synergistic association between habitat quality and carbon storage is the most significant, with the highest contributions from the average annual precipitation and average annual temperature (q-values 0.893 and 0.782, respectively). At the prefecture-level city scale, the intensity of the ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies shows an increasing trend, and the impact of interactions between socio-ecological elements is significantly higher than that at the grid and county scales. This research provides an evidence-based foundation for decision makers to devise suitable strategies that support the coordinated advancement of ecology and the economy across various spatial scales. It is crucial for promoting precise ecosystem regulation and the sustainability of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in China.

Agroecological farming is widely considered to reconcile improved working and living conditions of farmers while promoting social, economic, and ecological sustainability. However, most existing research primarily focuses on relatively narrow trade-offs between workload, economic and ecological outcomes at farm level and overlooks the critical role of contextual factors. This article conducts a critical literature review on the complex nature of agroecological farm work and proposes the holistic concept of sustainable farm work (SFW) in agroecology together with a heuristic evaluation framework. The latter was applied to ten case studies to test its relevance, affirming positive outcomes of agroecology on SFW, such as improved food sovereignty, biodiversity conservation, and social inclusiveness, but also showing trade-offs, including increased workload and potential yield reductions. Further, results show that contextual factors, such as policy support, market regulation, and access to resources, heavily influence the impact of agroecological practices on SFW. This article strongly argues for the importance of a holistic understanding of SFW and its contextualization within multiple socio-ecological system levels. The proposed framework establishes clear relationships between agroecology and SFW. An explicit recognition of these multidimensional relationships is essential for maximizing positive outcomes of agroecology in different contexts and fostering SFW. On a theoretical level, this research concludes that, from a holistic perspective, work is an entry point to studying the potential of agroecology to drive a sustainable agroecological transition in economic, social, and ecological terms.